heartbeat—a general arousal.

However, these elements also express the angry state to others, making it perceptible. Person B notices these expressions and reacts with their own body to the anger of A. For example, B might suddenly tighten their muscles and jump in surprise at person A’s raised/sharper voice.

Person B’s reaction is an expression of their emotional state, which person A perceives as an impression.

Person A then reacts to this
around a building to experience all
its sides, getting to know the
different qualities of light, different
smells, different sounds, and so on.
As we walk, we might also stick out
our hand and touch the building’s
facade to feel the texture of
materials.

Proponents of the enactive approach argue that because of this activity in exploring and making sense of our surroundings, there is an obvious close relationship between us and the world around us. Hanne De Jaegher and Ezequiel Di Paolo [ 4] explain that enacted cognition crucially consists of multi-sensory explorations of the world, while emphasizing the coupling between agents and the environment and their continuous embodied interaction. Moreover, these continuous interactions with other agents (mostly humans) and objects (including architecture) help us to understand the world and ourselves in it. Especially when we engage in interactions with other active agents, we engage in a process of participatory sense-making: The actions and reactions of all agents contribute to our emerging knowledge and experiences of the world.

ENACTION AND ADAPTIVE
ARCHITECTURE
According to the enactive approach,
we interact with the world in a
reciprocal manner: We interact with
and shape our environments, and our
environments shape our interactions.
In some sense, these interactions
are very much like the feedback loop
explained by Holger Schnädelbach
in this forum [ 5]. In the following,
we will see how this feedback loop
can develop its own dynamic, which
we as designers can then use to
create interesting, meaningful—
even beneficial—interactions with
adaptive architecture.
Enactive embodiment: A
mechanism. Thomas Fuchs explains
how we enact our embodied
connection with another person
through small bodily expressions and
impressions [ 6]. He uses the
following example: Person A is angry.
This is manifested in typical facial
and gestural expressions. Person A
internally perceives their own anger
as tension in the muscles, higher
body temperature, increased
According to the
enactive approach,
we interact with
the world in a
reciprocal manner. I M A G
E
B
Y
M
A
R
K
G
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T
H
O
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P
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Figure 1. HypoSurface, an interactive architectural element.